Colombian Cyclists Dream Of Racing Out Of Poverty

In the rural mountains of central Colombia, young cyclists such as these train in hopes of competing on the professional cycling circuit. Colombian riders are famous for their ability to withstand pain.

Johan Cardenas, 16, poses with his medals, one of his three bikes and one of his several trophies in his home in Duitama, Colombia. The promising young rider hopes to join the ranks of world-class cyclists from Colombia — who are known for their ability to withstand pain.

Cardenas is the coach of a cycling club for teenagers. And he pushes them hard.

"Go, go, go Johan, 500 more meters," Cardenas says.

He's talking to Johan Cardenas, one of the best teenage cyclists in this swath of emerald green mountains and potato farms.

This is a sparsely populated state called Boyaca, and it's a cycling mecca.

In the rural mountains of central Colombia, life is a struggle, and career choices for young men include potato farming and herding goats.

And so teenage boys dream of a different future: cycling to glory in the French Alps and the Pyrenees. That's because the rawboned cyclists from a string of hardscrabble Colombian towns have excelled as climbers in the world's great bicycle races.

Learning To Suffer

Now, hopes rest with cyclists such as the 16-year-old Johan, who is not related to his coach. He has wavy black hair. He's soft-spoken, mild-mannered.

But he also has the taut legs of a cyclist who can climb mile upon mile, up steep and forbidding mountain passes.

And he has something else they say all great cyclists must have: the ability to suffer — a lot.

"If you can't suffer," Johan says, "what good are you?"

In the European racing circuit, Colombian cyclists are famous for withstanding pain.

Luis "Lucho" Herrera is a national hero for winning a mountain stage of the 1985 Tour de France, plowing ahead even as his face was covered in blood from a crash.

More recently, mountain kings have included Santiago Botero, who said he rides like a madman, a warrior.